A top U.S. general reportedly warned his superiors this week that Washington lacks sufficient military power to protect the United States’ allies in the Middle East.
The U.S. has positioned naval destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to stabilize the Middle East and bolster Israel’s security for years, with the destroyers rising to particular use in recent months, as Iran has carried out attacks on Israel and 14 other countries in the region. However, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the head of U.S. European Command, told the Pentagon that he lacks sufficient naval forces to continue protecting Israel from incoming ballistic missiles from Iran and its terrorist proxies in the region, according to a Washington Post report published Friday.
Unless Washington provides another naval destroyer, he will be forced to choose defense of the United States over Israel, the report claimed, as the Iran war has put a strain on Washington’s military arsenal.
A U.S. defense official told the outlet that Grynkewich’s alert appears consistent with past outreach to the Pentagon from the military’s top generals when they see certain risks that require Washington’s consideration. This can occur, the official said, as commanders compete for finite resources and weapons, according to the report.
The alleged warning comes as the Trump administration has been forced to expend significant Naval resources to the Middle East due to the Iran war, particularly in response to chaos in the Strait of Hormuz. The war has also spurred Iran’s fury against Israel, due to Jerusalem’s move to aid the U.S. in the initial Feb. 28 strikes on Iran that launched the conflict, as well as Israel’s attacks on powerful Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen. Israel has faced ballistic missile strikes from Iran, as well as two of its affiliate terrorist groups, Hezbollah and the Houthis, due to its actions.
The U.S. naval destroyers deployed in the Mediterranean have played a role in helping fend off the attacks on Israel. But warnings that U.S. military capacity is waning under the strain of the war, including by using up over half of its valuable Patriot missile interceptors, come as Iran appears to be carrying out a plan involving using its proxies to magnify the conflict, making it as costly as possible for President Donald Trump. Citing two senior Iranian officials, the New York Times reported on Saturday that Iran devised the step-by-step plan in secret this spring during the ceasefire, planning to use its allies to escalate attacks if the U.S. intensified its assaults.
“The rules of the conflict are changing and being rewritten, we are creating new conditions and platforms in the war,” Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iran’s chief negotiator, said on social media. “The fronts are multiplying from different directions in the region; they are of course coordinated but act independently. A new axis of resistance is emerging with new players.”
US HAS USED MORE THAN HALF OF PATRIOT INTERCEPTORS IN IRAN WAR
Amid reports of a shrinking weapons supply arsenal, the U.S. could be eying a two-week military campaign that would put an end to Iranian attacks by targeting their remaining missile launchers.
U.S. Central Commander Adm. Brad Cooper reportedly briefed Trump on the plan on Air Force One earlier this week.